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DRC Elections: 507 days after the end of the enrollment

The organisation of the elections in the Democratic Republic remains more than ever uncertain, as much in 2017, 2018 and 2019. The Congolese could go to the polls, at best, in 2020, and at worst, on a date that nobody dares moving forward. The electoral prospects became more clouded after the speech of Corneille Nangaa, president of the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI), in front of political, diplomatic, intellectual, religious and other personalities gathered on Thursday, October 05, 2017 in Washington, of a forum organized by Atlantic Council, a pro-republican lobby.

Essentially, the requirement that the
presidential election be held no later than December 31, 2017, as
recorded in the New Year’s Eve and supported at the
United Nations level, The European Union, is definitely
buried at the level of the electoral center, which alleges
political, security, technical and financial constraints.
On this occasion, Corneille Nangaa recalled a figure which made
more than one shudder, namely that to arrive at the actual organization
of the least election, it would take 507 days, or 17
weeks, from the end of enrollment. This time
should be reserved for the kits (ballot boxes, polling booths, voting machines
), their delivery and deployment, the installation and
equipment of the polling stations, the different training to be given
to the supervision of the elections, etc.
As regards enlistment operations, it is believed that the enlistment operations could only be
completed in January 2018, or even beyond, in the provinces of
Kasaï, Kasaï Central and Lomami, and that the Congolese in the
diaspora are not yet account in the electoral register,
any counting of time is hitherto prohibited.
Moreover, when we hear the caciques of the
Presidential Majority insisting on the enrollment of Congolese abroad
before any election as well as the coupling of the
presidential, national and provincial legislative elections in
single sequence , one can not be made illusion about the shift in
the electoral calendar beyond 2019.
This is all the more true as the CENI hammers that it can not venture
to convene the electorate before the realization of the ”
Critical Activities ” of the electoral process, the promulgation of the law on
the distribution of seats and the integration of Congolese from abroad
into the roster.
Mathematically, if the 507 days or 17 weeks are
counted from 2018, the elections could only take place
in mid 2020, if not later. This delay could be
postponed beyond 2020 in the event of the occurrence of cases of
force majeure (considerable delays in the recruitment of Congolese
of the strange, war, rebellion, lack of funds, absence of text on
the distribution of seats, etc.).
According to information circulating in the
political headquarters , the Presidential Majority will cling to all the
prerequisites likely to delay, as long as possible, the
electoral process. It is suggested that many opponents
in the institutions of the Republic (Senate,
National Assembly , Government, CENI, CNDH), portfolio companies,
territorial (provincial governorates),
provincial assemblies , diplomacy … are ready to accompany the “slippage
“, pretending to demand “immediate elections” and “a
transition without Kabila”. Nobody, on the side of the power as of
the opposition, wants to take the risk of submitting to the sanction
of the ballot boxes, in an environment where the primary sovereign is determined to
settle his accounts to all the enjoyers of the Republic.